Hemipenthes morio

Hemipenthes morio
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Bombyliidae
Genus: Hemipenthes
Species: H. morio
Binomial name
Hemipenthes morio
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Anthrax morio Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Anthrax semiater (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Musca morio (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Villa morio (Linnaeus, 1758)

Hemipenthes morio is a species of 'bee flies' belonging to the family Bombyliidae subfamily Anthracinae.

This common 'bee-fly' is mainly present in most of Europe, in eastern Palearctic ecozone, in the Near East and in Nearctic ecozone.

The adults grow up to 7–10 millimetres (0.28–0.39 in) long, while the wingspan reaches 5–15 millimetres (0.20–0.59 in). They can mostly be encountered from May through August feeding on nectar and pollen of a variety of flowers (for instance of Lavandula stoechas, Cytisus scoparius, Thapsia villosa, etc.).

Their body is dark-brown and hairy, especially on the side of the abdomen. The wings have a light area located near the apex and a dark area close to costal margin, separated by a zig-zag division. The apex of cell R1 is hyaline. The dark area of the wings almost reaches the end of the abdomen.

The larvae are hyperparasites (parasites of parasites), mainly developing in larvae of flies (Diptera, Tachinidae), as well as in wasp larvae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) parasitizing caterpillars moths (Noctuidae).

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.